96 Beretta Project

[3400-95-Modified]

So now that it's running I found the Aeromotive FPR's don't hold cranking prime pressure... and that's written right in their FAQ that they design them for flow and steady pressure when running and you may need to wire in a switch to keep the pump running or something during cranking. SO checking my bin all I can find is "fuel pump prime time" and it's listed in seconds and has a value of 30... I hope that's a typo and is really milliseconds because it does NOT stay running for 30 seconds, 3 I would believe. I'll pull my current bin and change it to something like 300 or 400 and see if it actually stays running for longer. That would solve my issue.

It drives tho... Took it around the block with no hood or headlights last night... Seems to shift ok and when on stands I got it to shift all the way up to 4th gear so all seems well with the trans so far. I'll have to see how well it shifts under heavier load when I feel more comfortable with the car.

[3400-95-Modified]

Not sure honestly... I didn't experience any contact when test fitting everything so I'm hoping it will never hit. My old cam just touched the pistons on the exhaust and that was due to an extremely stretched timing chain, so I will inspect these pistons after some run time to see if they experience the same issue.. I don't expect them to seeing how the exhaust valve is actually closing 5* sooner than the old cam.

Old cam specs 278/289 adv 216/240 @.050 .517/.568 lift 108 ICL 112 LSA.
IVO is 31.0 ° BTDC ( - indicates ATDC)
IVC is 67.0 ° ABDC
EVO is 80.5 ° BBDC
EVC is 28.5 ° ATDC ( - indicates BTDC)
Overlap is 59.5 °

New cam specs 268/282 adv 218/230 @ .050 .570/.569 lift 109 ICL 113 LSA.
IVO is 25.0 ° BTDC ( - indicates ATDC)
IVC is 63.0 ° ABDC
EVO is 78.0 ° BBDC
EVC is 24.0 ° ATDC ( - indicates BTDC)
Overlap is 49 °

All specs used .006 tappet lift numbers.

[carbon]

I noticed that there were no valve reliefs in your pistons... what lift and/or timing does it take for that to be come a problem?

Great work by the way. I'd love to go through this process if I ever get the time.

[3400-95-Modified]

That is one thing I have never done with this car... and I really want to this time around with this engine.

[88GTRacer]

Sounds great man! Now let's see a dyno sheet after the engine break in!

[3400-95-Modified]

It's alive!

[3400-95-Modified]

Well today is the day... Axles are on the truck to be delivered to my house this afternoon. If all goes well I hope to be posting a success or video of the car running later tonight or tomorrow morning. I feel as though I've gone over everything 50 times so I'm expecting this to be rather uneventful but there is always a chance I forgot something so I'm still very nervous or cautious of how tonight will go.

Plan of attack,
Drool over axles
Re-install rear trans bracket
Install axles
Fill transmission
Mount subframes for good and align knuckles with ball joints. (only major issue with the new rear bushings, the control arm will not bend down far enough to insert the ball joint into the knuckle... )
Set control arms at ride height, tighten outer CV bolt
Prime motor
Install oil pump drive shaft
Install oil pump drive gear assy
Install front header
Install upper intake
Fit short Intake with MAF
Route plug wires
then hope for the best.

[3400-95-Modified]

Ok so if ANYONE needs custom axles... FUCK DSS and RCV... Just talk to Jon a CVsource... He got my axles on Monday(4/27) and had them completed and ready to ship by Wednesday night... I unfortunately did not get his emails on Wed night and Thursday morning for some unknown e-fukup but when I got a hold of him Thursday evening I got him a shipping tag and they went out the door friday. I will have them by Wednesday.

And only $265 later... Never mind that he straightened one of the axle shafts because it was slightly bent... and he also upgraded the drivers side inner CV joint which was the quality of light duty aka 4-cylinder applications even though I bought that axle back in 09 for a V6 auto application... Damn cheese ass re-man companies not paying attention.

Quickest custom axle turn around I've ever seen...

Jon Roberts
CV-Source
678-889-4118

[3400-95-Modified]

Things are getting close to a start up... Only about 5 parts that need to go on before I can start it. One of those parts are the axles... Without those I can't start it because there is no fluid in the trans.

Primed the motor and it runs about 60psi and will kick on the fuel pump when priming so everything is good there.

Also trying out a new deadhead routing for the fuel lines. It's a return less style rail and the return fuel that goes back to the tank only runs through the regulator and not under the hot intake. Hopefully that keeps the fuel temps down.

Having all this time had caused me to go very slow during assembly so I think everything is going to be 100% set when I start it for the first time.

I should know details on my axles today and hopefully they will be able to ship tomorrow at the latest so I can get them for the weekend. Or at least next week. Going to be in Jersey this weekend assembling a playground for my nephews.



And one thing I've noticed with this engine... it has a lot of compression or simply a good seal on the cylinders because damn is it tough to turn over with the plugs in it... very little air bleeds by the rings and whatever does it's slow!

Also all this time 3 things kept me from going to a full 3500... Thankfully TCE has the internal trigger now which I liked and I'm using, second was the AC mounting which ended up working out with what I did and wasn't that hard... And the third was the trans tail shaft bracket... if I had known it would have only taken 10 min with a de-burring tool and a Malibu Trans bracket would fit I would have done this a while ago.

MINT!

[mfuller]

Um....yeah, I'd say that tripod has seen some abuse.
Car looks great though (such pretty headers!), and I'm sure you'll be back on the road soon.
Like the Joes Racing stands - I just bought a new tire inflator and gauge from them.

[3400-95-Modified]

Other updates Drive line in



Headers on for looks...



And wear I found on my old tripod from my axles...



I love doing things twice so with that being said... I installed all the suspension components so I could set the car at ride height and measure axle lengths...



I will be re-moving the suspension again tonight to clean it up and prep for new rear bushings. I'm hoping the axle length I need and parts necessary will have some combo out there and not require a custom length shaft but if it does, I'll just swap the stock diff back in and run what I had in there last year for axle lengths till I can get the new ones... And worse case I drive it to MS like that and just don't drag race. Very disappointing about that, but I guess that's what I get for being the only one to try this shit...

[3400-95-Modified]

Yeah I thought of using a HG for a mask but this is the first time ever that I've coated anything like that and I'm not sure how well this coating will hold up so I figured I'd start small and when I inspect this motor in a couple of years if all is well I may do my second set of heads fully like what your's shows. I also had my valve job done already so i kept the valves in place to protect the lap job.

The coating Swaintech used on your heads looks more like the coating that's on my pistons too and that was done locally.

Spent a good chunk of time on it Sat AM and go the wiring harness all in and almost completely positioned... Need to play with a few wire locations and get them sitting right... it's been out of the car so long sitting in a pile all the bends are f-ed up and it doesn't want to sit the flattest.

Majorly stuck with the axle though. Tripod from the W-body is 34 tooth and larger diameter axle... Mine is 32 tooth and .955 axle diameter, so I can't just swap tripods. I have a W-body axle coming so I can take it all apart and figure out if that tripod perhaps has the same diameter pins that the rollers run on... if they do then I can just swap the rollers over and maybe it will all be good. Worse case I need to put the factory open diff back in the car to get it on the road and through emissions on May 20th and get some custom axles ordered... I figure that will take a while and may f-up my plans of drag racing at Beretta Fest since if it's still the open diff I'm not risking blowing that up down in Mississippi.

[mfuller]

Trying some new things....

Had to re-do the valves since this was only a test and I had not surface prepped them enough. I did a torch test and it held up to direct torch flame very well until I hit a tiny spot that had something under it which caused it to bubble. SO I will be cleaning them up really good tonight and then re-spraying them.

Interesting.
When Swaintech coated my heads they used a head gasket for masking.
As you can see, they also did the exhaust ports (and the valve faces).

[mfuller]

Looks great as always!

[3400-95-Modified]

Slow and steady wins the race... LOL

Got it out of the basement rather easily... Fit through the doors and was able to lift it up and out of the side door with ease.



And it's made it's way back into the car... SO much room doing this with no wiring harness in the car... I may just pull that every time to make this job easier.